Altus: The Dead Zone - Chapter I
This story is a little intense. This particular story gets tense at times with imminent danger and can get violent. (No blood is shown and the really bad violence is offscreen or omitted.) While it has been toned down for the Wiki, it still is more intense than most stories on here. Proceed only if you are comfortable with this! Before you Read There will be scenes later on that may warrant an unfiltered version. This is a version of the story hosted on deviantART that adds in extra scenes and extra detail that had to be cut for being too violent or vulgar for the Wiki. If you are comfortable with vulgarity (there is no raunchy content don't worry) you may ask for the unfiltered version from me on my wall. User: Aviivix I also respond to such requests in PM on chat, or in the Discord group. I accept critical reviews! Please tell me what you think of this story, as well as things you can see that I could change to make it better, and places in particular you enjoyed the most. ''' Note: "Be less violent" is not a criticism. This story is already toned down for the Wiki. Being set in a more realistic environment with dangerous terrain means that things can go wrong, and when they do, they have consequences. '''Chapter 1 A light flurry blanketed Altus's main camp early that morning in a loose overcoat of snowflakes over the icy down that covered the earth from the blizzards prior. Scout's range, which had been paced upon so many times over that he had made it to the gravel underneath, was now speckled with white dots that he pawed at. A strident howl rose above the normal clamorous orchestra of barks, growls, howls and whines. This howl put a hush to most of the camp, but only for a brief moment before the rest of the workers resumed their discordant chorus. It had been a month now since Scout had been chosen for a mission, and all the while he had cast invidious glares at those near him who had. Once, he had even snapped at a particularly cocky pair young German shepherds by the names of Atlas and P, who had given him an arrogant smirk upon passing him. He was desperate for some activity. The young Karelian mix had pawed at his lead, checked his ID, made sure he was logged right, ensured that the humans that occasionally came to survey the area in person knew he was there, and had other dogs mention his name to the higher-ups dozens of times in his stay. Today was different, though. He could sense it. There was something in the air that morning, something different, that made him feel like everything would go his way. Scout tugged on his lead as he usually did, begging boorish stares in his direction, when he heard that magical sound. His collar was flashing, sounding small, high pitched blips, and the secretary's voice rang through it. “We've got a hiking party of six lost out in Chugach. It's a long trek, they've been gone for a few days. Stas, supplies are being sent to you. Pack quickly, don't forget anything. Atlas and P, go along as well. I'm confident Stas can handle a bear, but I'd much prefer it if you handled that without the risk of losing supplies. Atrix and Scout, you'll be searching from the air if you're able. Don't stray too far from the group. Jack, you're the alpha this mission. Keep everyone in line. “Get ready quickly. You have ten minutes before Jet arrives with the plane to fly you guys to Anchorage. Good luck.” Scout was shaking, speechless. Finally, a mission! With his tail wagging a million miles an hour, he cheerily trotted into his house, putting on his uniform and making sure his wings were functional. Each aviator had their own set of artificial wings, each with a different shape and size for different purposes. He slipped it on and tore out the door for a brief moment until-- SNAP! His legs flew forward as his neck was yanked back by the lead he had forgotten to detach from his collar. Coughing and clearing his throat, he trotted up to the computer and gave the command. “Scout, ready.” The emblem glowed while the hook clicked and fell to the ground. “I hope your teammates aren't as forgetful as you,” a younger dog chided Scout for his actions. “With an act-first think-later attitude like that, you could seriously endanger any mission. No wonder you haven't had a mission in weeks!” “You're lucky I have a mission to go on, else I'd have half a mind to bite that smirk off your face,” Scout snarled, stomping his foot in the young dog's direction. “Learn your place, kid!” “My place? I got a mission yesterday! Young as I am, I could take you, you big oaf!” Scout opened his mouth to retort, but Atrix plodded up between them, only casting a cursory glance at the both of them before speaking up. “Calm down, you curs. All you males think about is fighting.” She looked back at Scout and said, “Come on, or we're gonna miss the plane.” Scout glared back at the younger dog, but didn't dare to say anything. He had never interacted with Atrix, the star aviatrix in Altus, and didn't want to blow it by getting in a fight. In an attempt to make small talk, he surveyed her. She was a beautiful kooikerhondje, with a silky coat and brilliant markings. Her feathered tail swayed side to side gracefully, almost catching Scout in a trance staring at it. “So,” he said nervously, looking for any detail to ask about. He noticed a small indentation in her left ear. “What's with that nick in your ear?” “Brutish ex,” she answered bluntly. “Ah…” he looked ahead and saw the jet with its not-so-gracious pilot, Jet. “Hey!” Jet called out. “What's up dogs? Aw, man, it's been too long since I last saw ya, Scout!” He was easily eight feet tall, and even crouching down he had trouble making eye contact with them. “Really, though, what took you guys so long? I'd usually leave by now but I just figured you might've forgotten where we usually meet. It's been, what, a month since you've last been on my methods of tran-spor-tation?” Jet said mockingly, sounding out each bit of the word individually. Each time one of the two dogs tried to speak, he simply interrupted. “Ah, I'm just playing. The rest are inside. Hurry up or the bears will get to the dudes you gotta rescue.” The human went on even as Atrix and Scout entered the plane. Though muffled, it was easy to hear him talking to himself about bears. Stas and Atlas looked over from their window seats, and Atlas spoke up. “Heya, Trixie,” he called in a clear flirtatious tone. Atrix rolled her eyes and turned to Jack. “Alright hotshot, what's the deal?” “'Viv told you pretty much all there is to know… besides the fact that the Chugach mountains remains one of the dead zones for our collars.” “Dead zone?” Scout questioned. “Ya’ heard that right, mate. No connection at all, so if you get lost, well, we can’t find you.” He cast a concerned look over at the aviators. “Try not to get too lost. I don't wanna be huntin' for bodies this time.” This time? Scout wanted to question, but he kept his mouth shut. There was a tense silence in the air for most of the flight. Atlas and P occasionally sparked quiet conversation among themselves, but Scout was starting to feel a deep fear within him. All of his missions so far had been relatively close, but suddenly he was being sent far away by plane with a pack of dogs who were mostly unfamiliar to him. Sighing, he put is head down on the window and stared at the vast sea of sky before him. “Come on, hotshot!” Atrix's voice pierced Scout's concentration. He jolted upright, realizing he had nodded off. They had arrived at Chugach, and everyone had already left the plane. Jet was asleep, legs kicked up on the co-pilot's chair, and the rest were nowhere in sight. “Mountains aren't too far off!” Scout heard Atrix yell from outside. He almost tripped over the stairs trying to regroup. Camp had already been set up and almost all the tents had been put up. Stas was just hammering in the last of the stakes as Scout emerged. “Good, good,” he said as he hammered away, “Ve can be going now?” “Yeah, yeah, let's go.” Atrix was sitting on the edge of a steep cliff, grooming her feathery, falcon-like artificial wings. The aviatrices always cared more about their wings than the aviators, but being the top aviatrix in the whole facility meant a lot to Atrix, so much that she incessantly preened the faux feathers on her wings until they looked flawless before and after a flight. Scout revealed his own wings, which looked drastically different. His wings were soaring wings like a vulture, structured to let him fly for long distances and survey the landscape before him, taking in lots of information at once. As he hooked up the rods from the wings to his paws, Atrix leapt off the edge, flying swiftly across the landscape. “Keep up!” her voice echoed. “I'm not as fast as you!” Scout yelled, hurriedly connecting the rods, before jumping off. Atrix was the fastest flyer in Altus, so if he waited, he'd never keep up with her in time to keep his eye on her. He got a running start, instantly diving down to gain momentum. Mere meters away from the treetops, he pulled up. All was going swimmingly, until an all too familiar sound rang out that just about stopped his heart. SNAP! The rod wasn't secured well enough to one of his front paws, and it flew off, pulling the wing upwards and causing him to flip backwards. Scout yelled out to Atrix, who was half a mile ahead of him by now, as he careened down to a wide, viciously flowing river below. Frantically flapping his wing and trying to pull the other one back, he shut his eyes as he plummeted through the sky. His draw string was gone as well, as he hadn't thought to attach a parachute in his rush to catch up. Everything went silent. He blocked out everything, only hearing the ringing in his ears and seeing the blueness of the sky above him. This is it, he thought. This is the day I die. Suddenly, something grabbed him. He didn't stop falling, but he felt like he was being pulled. “Atrix…?” he murmured. No, it couldn't be. She's too far ahead. For a moment he sat, confused, but he felt more clearly a hand, not a paw, holding onto him. He looked up, and saw Jet, his arms wrapped around Scout's body and massive black wings trying to flap against the wind. “We're not dying today!” he grinned, as their descent slowed. Jet's wings were stronger than any canine wing Scout had ever seen, and easily thrice the size. The gusts created by the large feathery limbs was enough to rip two other rods from their hooks. It didn’t matter, though. The wings were attached still and they had started to gain altitude slowly. “Fix your suit!” Jet yelled above the wind. “You’re too heavy, I can’t keep this up for long!” Scout reached for one of the rods, stretching his paw as far as it could. “I can’t reach it!” Scout yelled back. Jet adorned a concerned look, before shouting something inintelligible back. “What?!” Scout tried to ask, but in that instant, Jet let go and Scout’s heart skipped a beat. Not a moment later, Scout found himself being held by Jet’s abnormally long legs, Jet himself trying his best to reach the rods while staying in flight. He grabbed ahold of one, passing it down to Scout, who then attached it securely to its latch. However, Jet’s wings were faltering. They were slowly starting to descend into the river below. Scout only had one more rod to attach, and Jet was having trouble reaching it. “I don’t think I can get it, dude!” Jet strained. “It’s just one more rod! We can--” Scout was cut off as he and Jet suddenly lost air and fell. His wings gave out. The two of them plummeted through the air, and in a loud crash, deep into the river. Scout held his breath, trying his best to regain his composure. They were low enough in the air to where the landing only stung, and didn’t break anything in Scout’s body. The Karelian was no water dog, but he managed to surface with his wings intact. However, looking around, he couldn’t find Jet. Scout shook his head and secured his goggles, diving back under. Jet was unconscious, drifting along the bottom of the unforgiving current, being hit against rocks and debris as he floated along. Scout surfaced once more to catch his breath, preparing to make the long dive, when out of nowhere, a swift reddish blur dove into the torrent. Atrix. Scout joined her under the waves, discovering her not too far away, pulling at Jet. However, Atrix was frail and just watching her, Scout knew she wouldn’t be able to save him alone. He fought through the water current, pushing with all his might to get to them. Yelling, even speaking, would expend more air than he could afford to lose. Finally, he met her and with little more than a moment’s glance, they heaved Jet’s motionless body upwards, and the trio breached the surface, gasping and hyperventilating. “Atrix!” Scout gasped. “Thank me later, hotshot! For now, hold him!” Atrix snapped, diving back under. Scout didn’t know what this crazy dog was doing, but the next second, she popped up almost right underneath him. “There’s a waterfall ahead! Get ready! One… two… ” “Ready for what?!” Scout yelled over her, realizing in terror that she was right. “You don’t just start counting down and--” “Three!” Atrix grabbed Scout’s collar and thrust him over the edge, screaming in shock. In sheer panic, Scout spread his feet apart, surprised to realize that his wings had unfolded and were carrying him and Jet over the treetops. Atrix wasn’t far behind, and was helping hold the incapacitated humanoid. She only grinned, as she motioned to turn around and pull up as they headed back to camp silently. ★~⋆~★~⋆~★ “What was all that?!” Scout yelled, exasperated. “That was so dangerous, but that was amazing… no, no, no! You went completely off protocol! We-we weren’t supposed to do that!” “So what?” Atrix responded cheekily. “We would’ve died out there.” “Then we should’ve died!” Scout retorted, before realizing what he had said. “N-nevermind how it sounds, we could’ve made it through without all that… throwing us off a waterfall and hoping my wings worked! What if the rod wasn’t secure? What if you didn’t make it in time? What if we dropped him?” “Well we didn’t, and that’s the important part.” Scout tilted his head in frustrated confusion and followed her into the tent where she had placed her wings aside until the group was ready to set out. “Look here, rookie, Viv will tell you day in and day out that protocol is law, protocol is everything, protocol is your magna carta, but guess what? Sometimes breaking protocol is what will prevent a problem from turning into a tragedy.” Atrix led Scout over to the cliff and sat down, beckoning him to sit next to her. “You’ve gotta learn to think on your feet, kiddo. Roll with it, improvise, and if your brilliant idea wasn’t so brilliant after all, don’t bother thinking on it, just fix it. Make do with what you have, make do with what life gives you. Once you learn that, you’ll be a’ight.” Scout wordlessly stared out into the expanse of mountains before him. Pine trees covered the area ahead as far as the eye could see, and snow topped some of the higher peaks. The sun was rising, just barely visible over the towering mountains. All that remained in sight was the vivid warm colors of the sky, with clouds that almost seemed to be on fire. Few animals roamed, but in the distance he just barely spotted a snowy owl swipe a squirrel out of a treetop, all happening within the brief moment he caught the glimpse. “Saw that?” Atrix bumped him playfully. “You’ll do great. The owl says so.” “Yeah,” Scout said, staring off at the owl soaring off with its prey in its mighty talons. “Hopefully the omens can help me here.” “They pull through every now and again,” Atrix replied, stirring up the dirt with her tail. “It’ll be a fun day. We’ll get work done, we’ll get this group and we’ll get out of here, no problem. Trust me, alright?” Scout sighed, his gaze returning to the mountains. “I sure hope so,” he spoke softly, as a scarlet tanager ruffled its feathers in the tree next to them. Category:Fanon Category:Fanon Stories Category:Stories Category:Chapters Category:Series Category:Fanon Series Category:Scout (Altus) Category:Atrix (Altus) Category:Stas (Altus) Category:Jet (Altus) Category:Jack (Altus) Category:Atlas (Altas) Category:P (Altus) Category:Aviva (Altus)